Wednesday November 4, 02:51 AM

Source: Indian Express Finance

FE Edirorial: This is no defence

By The Financial Express
The government, it seems, cannot find its way out of the mess that 3G spectrum has become. The embattled telecom minister, A Raja, facing serious allegations of subverting best-practice norms, has once again raised the bogey of unavailability of enough spectrum to conduct a 3G auction. The culprits are the armed forces, which continue to retain more spectrum than they could possibly require, even in a most dire emergency. Nowhere else in the world, including the US, do armed forces corner the kind of spectrum they do in India. The fact that they do control so much spectrum is an accident of history. When the department of telecom, the original owner of spectrum, gave up its ownership to the defence forces, there was no prospect of a mobile phone revolution, let alone 3G. But now circumstances have changed, and the armed forces must part with spectrum faster than they have so far. In their defence, the armed forces say that they are waiting for an alternative optical fibre network that will be ready by next June. Perhaps they could be reasonable and begin parting with it slowly starting now and culminating some time next year. Still, this problem is not serious enough for 3G auctions not to take place in December or January. There is no reason that every bit of the spectrum that the defence forces will eventually release should be with the department of telecom before the auction takes place. In fact, the department of telecom already has enough spectrum to dole out to most operators in a large number of circles. Those who are left out in the initial allocation will get it shortly afterwards. Remember, there will be a time lag between the auctions and the actual rolling out of services. The winners of the auction will take time to set up the rest of their infrastructure. In any case, all auctions have a system of waitlists. There is no reason why this auction should be different. In the circles where spectrum is insufficient, those who miss out should simply be put on a waitlist until more spectrum becomes available. The government must stop any further delay in the 3G auctions, which are running behind schedule and depriving consumers in India of high-speed value-added services that are available to consumers elsewhere in the world. The telecom minister has committed a series of blunders in the time that he has held this office. He must be prevailed upon to limit further damage.